Dong Qui Worked For Me...

Linda G.

Being at an age that I thought was far too early to be experiencing signs of menopause, I kept looking for other reasons to explain why my periods had stopped, my lack of energy, weight gain, grouchy moods, short temper, and frequent spells of depression. I had recently experienced a death in my family, I was under tremendous stress at work, I had financial difficulties, I was questioning the course of my life, etc. etc. etc.

Then the hot flashes started, and when they came, they came full strength, and very frequently. I had to stop whatever I was doing and just try to cool down, eight-to-ten times a day! I was against immediately going to a doctor for hormone therapy -- pumping my body full of artificial hormones -- although many friends suggested taking that route, but my life got to be so unnatural, I felt so not myself and so knocked off track that I realized I had to do something.

I spoke with Theresa Chen at the Pacific Complementary Medicine Center, just before the opening of their holistic Nutrition Center, and asked if she could recommend something for these symptoms. Without hesitation, she suggested Dong Qui, a natural herb prescribed for menopausal reactions; at the time, she said she had been using it, with complete success, to treat the severely uncomfortable pre-menstrual symptoms one of her daughters had been experiencing on a monthly basis. That’s what Dong Qui is used for, she assured me.

It naturally stimulates the production of hormones in your body, which is what you need. Whenever you just put something in your body that your body should manufacture on its own, your body kind of shuts that process down, because there is no need. Here at PCMC we want your body to be healthy and do the work it’s supposed to do – that’s what keeps it healthy.

I started with a very small dose of Dong Qui, one pill a day. (It also comes in its natural form, which you can add into your soup, and it’s delicious.) Within four or five days, my hot flashes had completely disappeared, my good mood was not only restored, but elevated, I had more energy, and so began to lose some of that extra weight. I was happy and healthy and by the end of the first week, felt better than I had for six months. After about four weeks of taking Dong Qui, not even every day, lo and behold, I started getting periods again.

Dong Qui is only one example of a natural, medicinal remedy that truly works to restore a healthy body. I feel for me, at the time, it was a lifesaver.

February 1999